Missions

---

How is it So?


We like to call ourselves civilized. Why? Maybe, because we have roads, houses, cars, indoor plumbing. We have institutions, hospitals and schools. Is that what makes us civilized. Yet, we still have murders, we still have those who steal, those who urge to destroy. Are we civilized because we place such people behind bars of a prison? We still have mothers and fathers who abandon their children, are we civilized because we have orphanages? We still have men and women who divorce each other. Are we civilized because it is now a fifty-fifty statistic? And we have disease, horrible sicknesses. Are we civilized simply because we have a name to them, maybe not necessarily a cure? So, if the definition of civil remains in the material, I agree, we are civilized.
But, we as people are still hateful, still selfish, still so careless of anyone else. I know, it’s hard to want to think such of everyone. We all want to believe only in the good of people. And yes, there is good in people. But these people, in their goodness, still have faults. Humanity is known for the self-seeking desires of people.
So, how can people, as we are, and as history proves we are, create a god who hates and despises these things. We all essentially break one of His commandments. We know it says do not murder, but the bible tells us that to even hate your brother is murder of the heart. Or that adultery can be committed in the heart just by lusting after another woman. No one wants this to be true. No one wants to think their thoughts and desires can be murder.
To simply look at the bible objectively, it talks of loving, of caring, of throwing away selfish natures, putting others first. Most of the laws of this nation can be found first in the bible. It talks of changing yourself inside out. Of being joyful, of being content. This cannot be the result of man’s musing alone. And not just one man, many men who wrote these books of the bible. Sixty-six books, and forty different men who authored them. I can hardly walk down the street and find one who expressively desires these ideals. Of the many conversations I hold, none of them are centered upon these principles. So, how did forty men, some separated by hundreds of years time, all come together with the same vein of thoughts and desires for change? How did they each ‘create’ if you will, such a god?
What’s even more interesting. This idea, this god, came from eras that were not considered civilized as we are today. When self-preservation was probably even more pertinent, these men were proclaiming about goodness, and kindness, and the power of an almighty creator. When men had to work all day in the hot sun, and there were no offices, no minimum wage, no real choice of a career, Christ was proclaiming eternal salvation. When a man could be thrown, and was for proclaiming this goodness, in the worst of prisons, with dirt floors and I’m guessing little food or water or ‘civil treatment’ Paul was teaching inside those walls about contentment.
Throughout the years people have been persecuted, tortured, and killed for this belief. What kind of man or woman even desires such a total surrender? There are stories upon stories of Christians being killed for this way of thinking. You know, these acts of torture and execution only enhance the goodness of what they were trying to teach by showing the evil of man. People begin talking about God’s love, and the first instinct is to throw stones? (Literally and metaphorically speaking) Remember Paul, the one who talked of contentment no matter the situation? He was a man who used to persecute the Christians, who used to torture them. And yet he changed, could he do so on his own? Only the power of God could change the mind of a man like that.
So, we are now civilized, and we are still scoffing at the idea of such a god. We proclaim peace, and yet persecute those who say that peace can come from God. We proclaim love, and yet scorn the idea of God’s unconditional love. I guess in our selfishness, we only want to attain these things through our own, impossible, means.
I think in God’s wisdom, he put it to the people to proclaim for a reason. Sometimes, people will always find a way to disprove things that are seen, miracles that happen. But it is hard to explain why people are acting so unselfishly, so caring, so loving. Especially since, as I said, the nature of man is self-seeking. And that is why, when a man or woman is so at peace, so happy, we have a tendency to wonder why that is. Maybe, it really is the best way to explain God’s existence, his hand in people’s personal hearts.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE